


Just to Keep You Safe

by BellatrixDraven



Category: MASH (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-13
Updated: 2015-11-13
Packaged: 2018-04-30 21:59:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5181227
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BellatrixDraven/pseuds/BellatrixDraven





	Just to Keep You Safe

"Alice, aren't you supposed to be in the clinic right now?" James calls to me through the house, although he doesn't sound upset. Actually, it sounds like he's trying not to laugh.  
"I have ten minutes."  
"The clinic is fifteen minutes across town, what are you thinking?"  
"I stole Molly's roller skates for the weekend." I lean past the doorframe to stare at him. "What's it to you?"  
"Uncle Ricky wants us home Friday night, and you need to negotiate it with Elizabeth. I know you're the quickest study there, and they won't like losing you for an evening."  
"Pretty sure they'll understand." I turn back to the mirror and finish brushing my teeth. When I look up, I see James watching me soberly.  
"I know they will. It's going to be hard for everyone." He avoids saying what it is, although everyone in town knows. Friday night is the draft. So far no one we know has been picked, but every week it seems to come in closer and closer.

"Sure thing. But you'll be safe because you're my brother. No one can take you from me, not even the government." It's true. We're never really separated, even as toddlers we stayed together. We fight all the time of course, siblings do that. But it's okay, because we're never angry long. Except for the one time I filled his shaving cream with sawdust. He still hasn't forgiven me for that one.  
"Oh yeah?" He crosses his arms.  
"Yeah." I rinse my toothbrush and put it away, water droplets flicking onto the mirror. I duck past him to get to my room for the skates and my satchel. "No one can take you away."  
"Alice, you're going to college in a month, you're taking yourself away."  
"Rude and incorrect to boot. I got accepted. Doesn't mean I'm going. Just because Uncle Ricky wants me to study art doesn't mean I'm traveling to San Francisco to study art." I know how futile it is to say that. Even if Ricky doesn't make me, James will. Only one of us was going to go to college, and it was determined halfway through school it was going to be me.  
"Challenge accepted. You got the best scholarship and you're not spitting on them by refusing." He snorts and grabs my bag before I can leave. "I mean it Alice. You'll go to school, and become a painter. Support yourself at the clinic if you have to, but your art is going to change things. Be here Friday."  
"Don't be stupid, of course I'll be here." I yank my bag and leave.  
\--  
The skate to work is fast, but I still end up late. I don't bother with an excuse, and just walk to the back to clean up. Today is filled with vaccinations, and my job is to calm the children down enough to get a shot. When Elizabeth comes back with fresh masks, she doesn't bother asking questions. Her eyes remain stern as she scrubs her hands with scalding water. She smells of rubbing alcohol.  
"Friday is yours."  
"Off or on?"  
"Off, I know you need to be there for the draft readings. With any luck, James won't be called."

I want to say luck has nothing to do with it, but I don't. It's not luck, it's chance and probability. Numbers churning around and somebody gets theirs called, it's not luck. But I don't. Deep down, part of me believes that if we're lucky, James will be safe. That if I wish on the right star, and find the four leaf clover, he won't be picked.

And so I hope, as I finish scrubbing up, that Friday is filled with smiles. All I have is hope.


End file.
